Archive for CafePress

I usually don’t post a lot of ‘techie’ stuff on this blog. I’m considering starting another blog for this type of thing. But I DID want to at least mention it.

Let me back up, first. I started blogging as a way to get the word out about the t-shirts and gifts that I design for CafePress and Zazzle. That was almost two years ago. I really didn’t know too much about blogging and such, so I jumped in with a free blogger account. I’ve been pretty happy with it.

But, once I opened the restaurant, I got a blog started over there. And I used WordPress. I love it! It’s on my own domain, and it’s much easier to tweak things. I have since used WordPress to set up an affiliate site or two. And I’m getting better at it! I’ve learned so much…how to install wordpress, playing with themes, and so on. I recently did two things with WordPress, and they’ve made me very happy.

First, I actually PURCHASED a theme. I purchased the Flexx theme from iThemes. I love it! It’s very easy to change the layout, colors and pics. Easy peasy. I also found a plug in for automatic updating. I loved it so much, I actually donated to the author (which is something I can’t afford to do as much as I would like). Here’s the link to the plug in.

Now, am I going to break up with blogger? Nah, I don’t think so. It’s worked for me so far, and I guess I’m sort of attached. I have, however, re-directed links to my own site. So, you can also find this stuff at http://blog.brainlint.net.

Just a little mention of regular life: The new menu starts at Downey’s House on Tuesday, so I’ve been busy! I’m printing them up today. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks trying to get the menu together, programming it into our POS system, and making sure we have all our i’s and t’s dotted and crossed. On top of it all, the girls and I are headed down to Florida on Wednesday. Packing? Haven’t even really thought about it yet.

I also (finally) finished reading Dead Until Dark. I really, really enjoyed it…even though it took me much longer than it should have to read it. I bought the next 2 books to read while we’re in Florida. Hopefully I get enough ‘me’ time when we’re there. If you watched True Blood, the book and the show are pretty similar. But I was surprised that there wasn’t any mention of Tara (the bartender). I’m not going to spoil anything for anybody, so I’ll just say that there WERE differences in the book versus the series. But I think that both are very good.

OK, the girls are complaining that everything is ‘Booooorrrrriiiiinnnnnnnggggg!’ How about an exciting trip to Staples, girls? (OH, that makes me thing of a quick side note: I have always loved the smell of office supply stores. I’m strange. I love the smell of toner and paper. It makes me happy. We walked into Staples yesterday and Becca, with a smile on her face, said ‘Mom, mmmmmmm…it smells GOOD in here! Poor thing.)

Wow…this post really did go just about everywhere. Like I’ve mentioned before, sometimes I just can’t focus Have a great day!

I don’t really know if my family and friends know what happens during a typical Heather morning. I can’t imagine that they do know. So, just in case anybody cares (and to make myself feel a little better), here’s how my morning went. Today was an easy one, because we didn’t have to leave the house at all. Well, just a quick run to the bus stop. So, here it goes:

4:30 am – Wake up to see 3 year old in front of my face, asking for milk. Realize that I’m in Becca’s bed, and fell asleep around 9:15.

5:00 am – Think that it’s a good idea to wake up and get some stuff done. And I actually wake up.

5:00-5:45 – Spend some quality time with the husband, who has not gone to bed yet. He also thinks that it is currently still THURSDAY. I continue to correct him, telling him that it’s FRIDAY.

5:45-6:00 – Watch 15 minutes of the news. Wish I looked as good as Sonni Abatta.

6:00-6:25 – Watch ‘The Office.’ Laugh. It was a good one.

6:25-7:00 – Make large pot of coffee. Check e-mail. Log in the numbers from the restaurant last night. Prepare deposit. Figure out the change order. Update our POS system for Friday specials.

7:00-7:05 – Drink more coffee. Smoke another cigarette

7:05-7:06 – Start vacuuming a plethora of nerds candy from the family room. Realize that it’s 7:06, and decide I need to shower

7:36-7:55 – Pack a lunch, make a waffle, drink more coffee, have a smoke, find missing glove for Becca, brush Becca’s hair, grab almost-forgotten library book for Becca. Pack one pretty-looking sweetheart and one bed-head, pajama-clad, slipper-wearing sweetheart into car for 1 block ride to bus stop (it was cold!)

8:05-8:10 – Turn show on for Chloe, sit down to write blog post for Downey’s House

8:10-8:11 – Get Chloe a banana

8:11-8:30 – Finish blog post, check some forums and twitter. See that CafePress is down. Complain about it on twitter

8:30-8:31 – Put another television show on for Chloe

8:31-8:45 – Hang out with Chloe, tickling her until she begs me to stop

8:45-9:05 – Finish up with checking sales and stats online. Look up code numbers for the liquor I’m about to order

9:05-9:06 – Get Chloe some strawberries

9:06-9:15 – Order the liquor, enter amount into Quickbooks

9:15-9:45 – Help Chloe make Kool-Aid for her ‘Lemonade Stand.’ A lemonade stand where there are two customers: Me and a small stuffed bear. Play lemonade stand.

9:45-9:55 – Start dusting and cleaning the glass in the family room. Decide I’m not in the mood to really do much more cleaning right now.

9:55-10:05 – Spend 10 minutes searching for a copy of our new menu that Tony wrote revisions on. Finally give up, and hope I remember the revisions.

10:05-10:10 – Take phone call from the restaurant

10:10-10:11 – Start menu revisions

10:11-10:12 – Cut up an apple for Chloe

10:12-10:20 – Work on the revisions some more

10:20-10:22 – Help Chloe in the potty

10:22-10:30 – Finish with the revisions. Hope I got them all.

10:30-10:33 – Re-wash the laundry I left in the washing machine overnight. Freshen up clothes in dryer

10:33-11:00 – Print up a copy of the fixed menu. Remember that I also need employment apps printed up. Do that. Deal with my desktop and what my security scan found.

11:00-11:20 – Fold the laundry with Chloe. Yes, it takes that long.

11:20-11:23 – Sit down to sign our corporate tax returns

11:23-11:24 – Get Chloe some carrots

11:24-11:30 – Decide to boil some eggs. Smoke a cigarette

11:30-11:45 – Fart around on the internet. Still annoyed that CafePress is farked up.

11:45-11:50 – Sew up the back of Chloe’s Build-A-Bear

11:50-12:00 – Get the eggs from the stove. Decide to write this post.

12:00-12:03 – Make toast for Chloe

12:03-12:10 – Continue with post

12:10-12:11 – Get a hard boiled egg for Chloe

12:11-12:16 – Continue with post

12:16-12:17 – Make witty remark on Twitter. Well, I thought it was witty

12:17-12:20 – More blog post

12:20-12:22 – Get Chloe some Kool-Aid

12:22-12:30 (now) more blog post.

So, there’s my morning so far. The thrilling life of a work-at-home-business-owner-mom. You know, throughout this time line, there’s the conversations I have with Chloe. Well, they’re not really conversations. It’s more like a question and answer period. That lasts, um, all day. These kinds of mornings are actually my favorite. I get some business stuff accomplished, get some housework (sort of) accomplished, I get to be social with my online friends, and I get to hang out with my Chloe.

Now, I’m gonna go and make myself some egg salad. I did sneak a granola bar in sometime around 8:00. But I’m hungry!

Hey…if you need a gift and you’re on the computer this weekend, I just got a free shipping code. It’s only good for this weekend. Here are the details: Free shipping on $50 or more, use code FEMVAL1 . Ends February 8th at 11:59 PST (That’s 2:59 AM on Monday the 9th for us East Coasters). Here are some of my Valentine’s Day designs you might be interested in:

Hey, everybody! Well, right now I’m in the middle of school being canceled, a morning of no electricity at the restaurant and a honkin’ messy house. But guess what? I got some good news on Monday night when I found out that I won a t-shirt design contest over at ashirtforeverything.com!!! You can see the post announcing that I won here, but I’ve also included a picture of my entry:

I was just tickled pink about winning! So, I get to judge the next contest (and pick the topic – which I have chosen, but Casey hasn’t announced it yet). Such fun! It brightened up this otherwise icy and miserable week!

Well, let me tell you about the past two weeks in regards to my t shirt shops. CafePress added some dark sweatshirts and hoodies. I was (and still am) very excited about it. The dark hoodies sell well on Zazzle, and I know they’ll do well over at CP. I added them to my shops a couple of weeks ago. I have one, very large, job/occupation shop. I had to go in and tweak 2/3 of the designs I have for the sweatshirts. Then I added them to my other stores, Brainlintdotnet and PeaceLoveand(